SOMA NATIONAL RETREAT 2023: BUILDING & STRENGTHENING

With Brad Watson, Director of Global Areas and Chris Synesael, Soma Canada
5pm Monday 16 – 10am Thursday 19 October 2023
CMS Conference Centre, 8 Violet St, Katoomba

The National Retreat is for Soma pastoral couples and their teams, and those leaning into Soma or thinking about becoming Soma. It’s an opportunity to connect as a network of churches, be encouraged by all God is doing in our midst, learn from, and support each other.

Registrations close Tuesday 3 October 2023.

Find Out More Register Now

SOMA SCHOOL

18 – 22 January 2024
Soma Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia
With Dave Miles, Toby Dedden and Hope Foskett

WHAT IS SOMA SCHOOL?

An equipping environment where missional community moves from theory to experience.

We put people in an environment to experience missional community life, to taste and see, rather than just talk theoretically about it. Every participant stays in the home of a missional community leader and sees their lives. They’re immersed in a gospel rich environment and participate in everyday mission.

Soma School equips leaders, church planters, and staff to engage in missional community life, to lead missional communities, and to lead a church of missional communities.

Applications close Monday 18 December 2023.

Find Out More Apply Now

Who is soma australia?

Soma Australia is both a family and a movement. We’re a family of Australian churches who support each other. And we’re also a movement working with City to City Australia to equip and empower Australian churches and church planters.

More about soma australia

Soma Global Areas

Soma Global Areas is a new way to support and grow Soma churches across the world. The goal is to establish new Soma Areas. These are families of churches within different countries, so that multiple churches in a nation work together, in a more organised, sustainable and accountable way than we have so far. A Global Leadership Team has been formed, led by Brad Watson. Its role is to serve, equip and champion the emerging global areas. And then, under the umbrella of the Global Leadership Team, Area Teams are being formed in each country. An Australian Area Team has now been formed, and its role is to help strengthen, care for, and establish a healthy family of Soma churches here in Australia.

VISION

We want every man, woman, and child in Australia to experience an encounter with Jesus Christ in both word and deed in the everyday. We believe missional communities are a biblical and incredibly powerful way of seeing this happen.

FIND OUT MOre

MISSION

We want to give people the ability to plant and lead missional communities, and to plant and lead churches of missional communities.

Find out more

JESUS IS BETTER

HIS CHURCH IS MORE

HIS MISSION IS EVERYDAY

Jesus is better

We believe Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, present ascension and intercession before God the Father on our behalf, and the work he’s doing by his Spirit in our lives and in our world, and his future return to make all things new… is the greatest news and the only hope for the world!

His church is more

We believe in Missional Communities, which are a way of re-imagining church life for Australians, in a way that is relevant to modern life. They combine a focus on gospel renewal, cultivating deeper community by practicing ‘life on life’ discipleship, and committing to ongoing gospel centred mission to specific people or groups throughout urban, suburban and rural Australia. Missional Communities aren’t everything, but they’re foundational for us. We also believe in gathering regularly as a whole church, and in eldership and having theologically trained staff, and so on.

 

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his mission is every day

We believe in mission in the everyday stuff of life. We want to be witnesses of Jesus to the people the Holy Spirit sends us to live among, showing the Gospel by how we love them and each other, and sharing the Gospel in our willingness to give Jesus as the answer to every human longing. Jesus never sent his disciples on mission alone, so as a missional community we always work together to see the Gospel go out.

We partner with

City to city australia

City to City Australia exists to help leaders build gospel movements in Australian cities. The vision of City to City Australia is to join with God to see major city centres in Australia worshipping Jesus Christ as Lord.

Soma Australia has officially joined City to City Australia. 

Find out more

Soma US

We’re a family of churches. We make disciples, strengthen one another, and plant churches of Missional Communities towards Gospel Saturation…until every man, woman, and child has a daily encounter with Jesus in word and deed.

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So thankful that many of us got to meet together in Melbourne for our Soma National Retreat the first time in nearly 4 years! It was a very special time of learning together, sharing and praying for one another, growing in the gospel, talking vision and next steps and being family together in Christ. We were blessed to have 7 international guests join us. Keep an eye out for next years Retreat which will be hosting in the Blue Mountains, NSW!
So thankful that many of us got to meet together in Melbourne for our Soma National Retreat the first time in nearly 4 years! It was a very special time of learning together, sharing and praying for one another, growing in the gospel, talking vision and next steps and being family together in Christ. We were blessed to have 7 international guests join us. Keep an eye out for next years Retreat which will be hosting in the Blue Mountains, NSW!
Reminder: The LIFE TOGETHER event in SYDNEY is coming up quickly on Saturday evening July 9 2022. We'd love to see you there. We'll be discussing what gospel-infused communities on mission can look like in our context here in Australia. Brad Watson (Soma Global Areas), Ben Connelly (Founder of Equipping Group) as well as Andrew Katay (CEO of City to City Australia) will be presenting on the evening. The evening has been inspired by Bonhoeffer's book, 'Life Together'. We're running this event alongside City to City Australia as well as Acts29 NSW... Please get in touch for more information. citytocityaustralia acts29au_nz_jp
Reminder: The LIFE TOGETHER event in SYDNEY is coming up quickly on Saturday evening July 9 2022. We'd love to see you there. We'll be discussing what gospel-infused communities on mission can look like in our context here in Australia. Brad Watson (Soma Global Areas), Ben Connelly (Founder of Equipping Group) as well as Andrew Katay (CEO of City to City Australia) will be presenting on the evening. The evening has been inspired by Bonhoeffer's book, 'Life Together'. We're running this event alongside City to City Australia as well as Acts29 NSW... Please get in touch for more information. citytocityaustralia acts29au_nz_jp
Recently, David Miles talked with Tina Waldrom about Being Gospel Centred in our Mission. David is a church planter in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales and he is on the leadership team of Soma Australia and is encouraging the formation of Gospel Communities to reach people for Christ. Gospel Communities focus on the centrality of the gospel, and its implications for life and mission. The use of the term gospel, rather than missional, provides some unique perspectives. In this episode, David gives the practical application to the underpinning theology and philosophy of Gospel Communities. He talks about the practical elements of his own Gospel Community, and what the church gathering looks like. He goes on, to give some ideas on how an existing church, may head in the direction of Gospel Communities. David’s insights to effectively move a group of people, into Christ and out to the community, are valuable for all believers. Have a listen! evangelisminaustralia https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-evd3m-123a42a
Recently, David Miles talked with Tina Waldrom about Being Gospel Centred in our Mission. David is a church planter in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales and he is on the leadership team of Soma Australia and is encouraging the formation of Gospel Communities to reach people for Christ. Gospel Communities focus on the centrality of the gospel, and its implications for life and mission. The use of the term gospel, rather than missional, provides some unique perspectives. In this episode, David gives the practical application to the underpinning theology and philosophy of Gospel Communities. He talks about the practical elements of his own Gospel Community, and what the church gathering looks like. He goes on, to give some ideas on how an existing church, may head in the direction of Gospel Communities. David’s insights to effectively move a group of people, into Christ and out to the community, are valuable for all believers. Have a listen! evangelisminaustralia https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-evd3m-123a42a
Our latest newsletter - hot off the press! Check it out. If you would like to receive our quarterly updates encapsulating news, events, articles, podcast and videos relevant to our Family of Churches and our movement please get in touch... https://mailchi.mp/b2cc9b222634/soma-australia-summer-news-16284335
Our latest newsletter - hot off the press! Check it out. If you would like to receive our quarterly updates encapsulating news, events, articles, podcast and videos relevant to our Family of Churches and our movement please get in touch... https://mailchi.mp/b2cc9b222634/soma-australia-summer-news-16284335
Our National Retreat, 'Unifying & Beginning', is only 5 WEEKS away! It's very exciting. This will be the first time Soma Australia family and friends have gotten together in 4 years. It's going to wonderful reconnecting, sharing stories, praying, worshipping and being mutually encouraged as be look ahead to what God has for this movement. There is still time to REGISTER... Simply click on the link below. http://somaaustralia.org.au/events/
Our National Retreat, 'Unifying & Beginning', is only 5 WEEKS away! It's very exciting. This will be the first time Soma Australia family and friends have gotten together in 4 years. It's going to wonderful reconnecting, sharing stories, praying, worshipping and being mutually encouraged as be look ahead to what God has for this movement. There is still time to REGISTER... Simply click on the link below. http://somaaustralia.org.au/events/
We understand a Missional Community (MC) as ‘a family of disciples on mission, who gather around Jesus and the Gospel in the everyday stuff of life.’ MCs often go by different names such as ‘Gospel Communities’ or ‘Kingdom Families,’ but they are distinguished by their willingness to work out together how to love God, love each other, and love their neighbours. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said to his disciples – ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ Jesus gives us his priorities for the kind of communities that his followers would form: - As a spiritual family, adopted by grace, as sons and daughters of God, we must love and serve each other sacrificially, just as Jesus loved us by laying down his life. - As disciples of Jesus we must learn what it looks like to apply the Gospel into the everyday stuff of life, and learn how to speak the Gospel to each other in order to build up the church. - As missionaries we must become witnesses of Jesus to the people the Holy Spirit sends us to live among, showing the Gospel in how we love them and each other, and sharing the Gospel in our willingness to give Jesus as the answer to every human longing. Jesus never sent his disciples on mission alone, so as a missional community we always works together to see the Gospel go out.
We understand a Missional Community (MC) as ‘a family of disciples on mission, who gather around Jesus and the Gospel in the everyday stuff of life.’ MCs often go by different names such as ‘Gospel Communities’ or ‘Kingdom Families,’ but they are distinguished by their willingness to work out together how to love God, love each other, and love their neighbours. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said to his disciples – ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ Jesus gives us his priorities for the kind of communities that his followers would form: - As a spiritual family, adopted by grace, as sons and daughters of God, we must love and serve each other sacrificially, just as Jesus loved us by laying down his life. - As disciples of Jesus we must learn what it looks like to apply the Gospel into the everyday stuff of life, and learn how to speak the Gospel to each other in order to build up the church. - As missionaries we must become witnesses of Jesus to the people the Holy Spirit sends us to live among, showing the Gospel in how we love them and each other, and sharing the Gospel in our willingness to give Jesus as the answer to every human longing. Jesus never sent his disciples on mission alone, so as a missional community we always works together to see the Gospel go out.
somaaustralia.org.au
somaaustralia.org.au
Get ready for Conversations of Grace by our brothers and sisters from churchnextdoor_melb ⁣ Come and join with Nathan Oliver and guests as they discuss how the good news of Jesus can be known and enjoyed in the everyday stuff of life.⁣ ⁣ This season they're looking at relationships.⁣ ⁣ Check out the trailer! Link in bio.
Get ready for Conversations of Grace by our brothers and sisters from churchnextdoor_melb ⁣ Come and join with Nathan Oliver and guests as they discuss how the good news of Jesus can be known and enjoyed in the everyday stuff of life.⁣ ⁣ This season they're looking at relationships.⁣ ⁣ Check out the trailer! Link in bio.
New website coming soon.⁣ ⁣ Packed with Soma Australia resources to help strengthen your gospel centred communities on mission.⁣ ⁣ Jesus is better. His church is more. His mission is everyday.
New website coming soon.⁣ ⁣ Packed with Soma Australia resources to help strengthen your gospel centred communities on mission.⁣ ⁣ Jesus is better. His church is more. His mission is everyday.
Soma Australia has officially joined citytocityaustralia ⁣ ⁣ City to City is a global church-planting movement⁣ emanating from Tim Keller, NYC. It provides best practice training and support for church planters, church plants and networks of church plants.⁣ ⁣ We have already been encouraged by the mutual benefits of this new collaboration for seeing gospel⁣ growth in Australia!⁣ ⁣ Find out more at: https://citytocityaustralia.org.au/blog/2019/5/3/soma-australia-has-joined-city-to-city-australia
Soma Australia has officially joined citytocityaustralia ⁣ ⁣ City to City is a global church-planting movement⁣ emanating from Tim Keller, NYC. It provides best practice training and support for church planters, church plants and networks of church plants.⁣ ⁣ We have already been encouraged by the mutual benefits of this new collaboration for seeing gospel⁣ growth in Australia!⁣ ⁣ Find out more at: https://citytocityaustralia.org.au/blog/2019/5/3/soma-australia-has-joined-city-to-city-australia